Tuesday, 19 April 2011

David Coulthard: Lewis Hamilton's wondrous drive in China shakes Formula One season into life

Following his setback in Malaysia, where he dropped from second to seventh with an unscheduled fourth pit stop, Lewis Hamilton looked confused. Disgruntled. He was saying one thing, his team were saying another.

He was clearly frustrated because he knew the old accusation about him being too hard on his tyres — which he has worked so hard to bury over the last couple of years — was going to come back to haunt him.

He also knew what his McLaren was capable of. Now we all do.

In China, Lewis was at his aggressive, brilliant best. In fact, it was one of the finest drives I can remember from him.

He had a great start, muscling his way past Sebastian Vettel off the line to claim second place behind team-mate Jenson Button; kept his head together when he was passed by Seb after the first round of pit stops through no fault of his own; and then pushed to perfection on a three-stop strategy to reel in Red Bull's world champion with four laps remaining.